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Ground venison jerky is a thing. I actually had to learn this from my fellow deer hunters, who love the stuff. I was, initially, skeptical.
Jerky, real jerky, is made from slabs of meat, not coagulated ground-up meat. I saw no reason to go beyond my chipotle venison jerky, which has been called the One Ring of venison jerkies; you’ll need to be a Lord of the Rings fan to get that joke.
But hey, it’s popular, I thought. I should really do one. Then I remembered: I don’t bend to peer pressure. Screw ’em.
Until I ate a Tanka Bar.
The Tanka Bar
is a pemmican-like bison bar made by the Oglala Sioux in South Dakota that’s available in some stores, and definitely online. One day I bought one at a truck stop in North Dakota while I was on the road, and it immediately changed my mind about ground deer jerky. Chewy, rich, with bits of dried berries and a hard-to-pin-down spice mix.
This recipe is a hat tip to the Tanka Bar. I think I’ve reverse engineered it pretty well, and I am proud of this recipe, which first appeared in my 2016 book Buck, Buck, Moose.
You can use any red meat here, or even dark meat off a wild turkey. I bet it’d be fantastic with prairie grouse, too, if you happen to have quite a lot of them.
I prefer dried berries here, but you can leave them out if you hate them. Any dried berry will do: craisins would be the easiest to get (other than regular raisins, that is), but I prefer dried wild berries like blueberries, huckleberries, mulberries, lingonberries and such.
You do need a special piece of equipment to really do this right, however. You need a jerky gun. It’s basically a caulking gun modified for food use. Several companies make them, but the one I use.
You also need a bit of curing salt to make this correctly. I use Instacure No. 1, which is also called Prague Powder No. 1. If you leave it out, it’ll be fine, but you won’t have ground deer jerky that tastes like a Tanka bar.
Pemmican-style Ground Meat Jerky
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ pounds venison
- ¼ pound bacon
- 1 cup dried cranberries or other berries
- 18 grams salt, about 1 tablespoon
- 3 grams Instacure No. 1, about ½ teaspoon
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground mace or nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon of paprika, smoked if possible
- 2 to 3 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ cup water
Instructions
- Grind the venison, bacon and dried cranberries through the fine die of your grinder. If you are using pre-ground venison, chop the dried cranberries well and add them to the ground meat. Put the meat and cranberries in a large bowl and add all the remaining ingredients. Mix well with your (very clean) hands until everything comes together and starts to stick to itself.
- If you have a vacuum sealer, seal the mixture and set in the fridge for 24 to 48 hours. If you don’t, pack the meat mixture into a lidded container and press some plastic wrap directly onto the surface and let it sit that way.
- The next day, separate the mixture into two or three chunks, depending on how big your jerky gun is. Pack it in and squeeze out lengths of jerky onto your dehydrator trays. Make sure they are separated from each other. Dehydrate at 150°F until the meat is mostly dry, but still chewy. If you don't have a dehydrator, you can smoke-dry it in your smoker, or in an oven set to "warm," with the door slightly ajar. In both of these cases, you want to keep the temperature as close to 150°F as you can.
- This sort of jerky doesn’t keep as long as traditional jerky because of the fat content. But it will keep for several weeks in the fridge, and it freezes well.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Raw bacon or 1/4 pound cooked bacon?
Paul: Raw bacon.
Will these things survive mailing? I.e., how long will they be ok if not refrigerated?
TJ: They’ve held up for a week at room temperature in my experience. I’ve never mailed it, but I have had it on a long road trip.
Ended up using dried currants. Awesome! Love everything you come up with.
When you say Craisins do you mean the brand name or just dried cranberries. The brand named would be sweetened would it not?
Ed Muhl: I just mean dried cranberries. I do like them a little sweetened, though.
Made this jerky yesterday… It’s delicious! I’m not a big fan of the “shoe leather” type jerky that requires gnawing forever to get it soft enough to swallow. I always end up with meat stuck between my teeth… this jerky is great, easy to chew, tasty and has a nice balance of sweet and spicy. I’m making more tomorrow… BTW I dehydrated my first batch for about 5 hours at my dehydrator’s meat setting ~145 deg (that’s as high as my dehydrator goes). I did use instacure #1 as called for in the recipe.
Hello Hank. If the meat processor mixed in beef or pork can I still make this? Thanks.
David: Yes you can, but dry it at a hotter temperature if it was mixed with pork. Shoot for 160F, which is basically an oven set on “warm.”
Hank, I can’t wait to try this, it sounds excellent. I plan to use pre ground elk burger with 5% beef fat. Do I still use the 1/4 pound of bacon?
Ken: I wouldn’t. I’d leave the bacon out and up the salt as I mention in the recipe.
Hank- I have your book and made some whole muscle jerky (both your chipotle and teriyaki recipes) from the antelope I shot this year. It was so good its already gone… I have some trimmings I’m going to grind for this recipe over the holidays. I’m going to triple the recipe as I have a lot of meat to work though. I don’t have a way to measure in grams and and was double checking my math on the conversions. In googling the conversion I found that 1 tablespoon of salt = 17.06 grams. The recipe above calls for “18 grams salt, about 2 tablespoons.” am I correct in assuming this may be a typo and perhaps this is why Andrew, above, ended up with an overly salty product?
Brandon: It’s right. Remember, you cannot accurately convert weight to volume with salt. Salt is cut differently, which is why you always weigh it. Even kosher salts are different. Morton’s and Diamond Crystal, the two most common brands are very different in terms of volume. Sorry, man, you need a scale.
This recipe needs editing on the salt. I got a scale, just like you said. I don’t care what kind of salt you have, 18 g is close to ONE tablespoon, not two. My first batch (before I got a scale) was OK but too salty. It should say 18 g or 1 T. Sorry to complain, Buck Buck Moose is my bible for all things venison.
Mike: Fixed it.
Just confirming, if using pre-ground venison w/about 15-20% pork fat added when processed (via pork trimmings but not via bacon, as suggested), do we still need to increase salt from 18 to 25 grams (since no bacon)?
RJ: Yes you do because there is no salt in the added pork.
I worked out the issue, I used onion salt instead of onion powder, I will just have to make some more 🙂 Thanks Hank !
Hello Hank, I made this today, was a bit salty, so I double checked to make sure I got the measurements correct, I did. Can I cut back on the salt, or is it needed with the Instacure No. 1 to help with the curing process? Thanks in advance !
Andrew: Interesting. I generally have a low tolerance for salt, so I rarely get this comment. But yes, you can cut back on the salt, but you will need to keep the jerky in the fridge and it won’t keep as long.
Have never cured meat before and would like to try this recipe but noticed that Prague Powder No. 1 Pink Curing Salt contains FD & C Red #3. Any alternative?
Deb: It might be theoretically possible to find curing salt without it, but remember: You are using a tiny amount of this stuff. Three grams is almost nothing. You can leave it out if you want.
I’ve made ground venison jerky before, just not this elaborate. If you don’t have a jerky gun, lay a piece of wax or parchment paper on a flat surface. Lay another on top and roll out the ground meat when a rolling pin. Little more work but ended result is the same…
Thank you for a new dehydrator recipe. I make a pepperoni stick recipe that I love and so does my little dog. No added bacon, just straight ground venison. I do keep it in the fridge, other wise it does spoil. If I think it is going to last a while I will freeze it and pull it out in snack pack size frozen packs. Simple to make. Love your blog.
This is an interesting recipe. I’ve never made jerky from ground meat and am going to give it a try with some ground venison. Can this be dried in an oven if I don’t have a dehydrator? If so, any tips for using an over?
Scott: Yep. Set the oven to “warm” and keep the door ajar with rolled up foil.
My mom often made ground meat jerky when I was a kid. No jerky gun, just a layer on the screen. Never knew how it turned out since there usually wasn’t any left when it was finished cooking 🙂
Sounds so good but no jerky gun here. Maybe it can be rolled really thin and cut into rectangles? Maybe?
On another note, I’d love to see more “process” pictures in your posts and not just finished product/dish.
E. Nassar: Yes, you can do that. Grease the roller and put parchment paper on a sheet pan.
Can this be made without the berries? My family dislikes them. Would you substitute with something else?
Joelly: Absolutely. Just leave them out.
Awesome recipe Hank. Always a pleasure to read you as usual. Would you give this a shot with pigeon? Or woodcock maybe? If using woodcock, would you switch nutmeg for something else or you think it would do?
Mathieu: Um, woodcock jerky? Seems like not the best use for such a wonderful and scarce bird. But if you shot lots of pigeons, yes, it’d be fine.
Is thaere an alternative to using a dehydrator? Smoker?? Over?? I would prefer to smoke but don’t want to over do the smoke flavor.
Steve: Absolutely. My first choice would be a smoker set as cool as you can set it, ideally below 175F. Alternately, an oven set to “warm,” with the door kept ajar with a balled up piece of tin foil.